Tell Me a Story
by Miss Hydrangea
Summary: Kankuro isn't a very good story teller, but that's okay, because Ino usually isn't a very good listener. She makes exceptions, though.  Rated T just in case for later chapters
1. Chapter 1

Blanket disclaimer: Naruto doesn't belong to me. Neither does anything else in here that looks like it comes from something that's copyrighted. I drew some inspiration from "Shame and Fame" by ckret2, but I believe that there will not be significant overlap between ckret2's work and my own.

AN: I am both cautiously excited about this story and insecure about it. Excited because I think I might be able to stick with this story, cautious because I have a horrible track record for completing fics, and insecure because… well. Hopefully you like what you read, and whether you do or not, I'd appreciate constructive criticism!

**Chapter 1: The First Story**

His door was ajar, so that meant he was "safe". All the dangerous patients and most of the creepy ones were locked in, so that they couldn't get out and do something they shouldn't. The ones who were sane until bothered would close their doors, or sometimes they would lock them from the inside.

The first thing she thought, when she looked into the room, was that she had never seen him before. That was strange, since he looked like a shinobi child, and she had never seen him at school. Therefore, he must be very interesting. He also had dolls on the table by his bed, which was another good sign, even if they weren't pretty dolls like hers. Lastly, he was bored. She could see it in the slouch of his shoulders, the look in his eyes. That was all the invitation she needed.

She marches into his room with all the confidence of a person who has legitimate business walking into it, and plops herself down into the chair by his bed. "Hi," she chirps with a smile, "Who're you?"

He's confused, she can see it in his face, and he doesn't answer her question. "Are you in the right room?" he asks. "I don't know who you are."

"I'm Ino Yamanaka. I'm six years old and I like playing dress up," she replies easily, too easily for a shinobi child, "Pleased to meetcha." She pauses, and adds as an afterthought, "And if you hurt me my daddy'll melt your brains. So, who are you?"

He laughs at the way she transitions so easily between threats and pleasantries, at the way practically she reeks of innocence with her easy smiles and openness. He can't remember being that way before, and suddenly, he feels like a big kid, experienced and proud. He is bigger than her, after all. "I'm nobody," he smirks at her.

"You can't do that!" she pouts. "You have to tell me more than that."

"What if I don't want to?" He watches her reaction, observing the brow furrowed in concentration and the way her lips crinkle together like a drawstring purse as she tries to create a response.

"Tell me about your dolls," she says, pointing to the ones by his bed. "What are their names? What do they do?"

"That's a secret," he teases, because he hasn't known anyone who reacts quite as easily as she does. She thinks a bit more, staring hard at the ceiling in her concentration.

"Tell me a story, then."

"And if I don't?"

"Then I'll go find someone else to talk to."

"Alright, then." He decides to humor her, if only because he is eight, and he is bored and no one ever comes by to visit if they don't have to, anyway. She smiles at him sunnily, before making her demands.

"Tell me a story about a prince—a handsome prince and a pretty princess. She's blonde."

He begins, "There once was a prince. He was alone in the world, except for a princess, a beautiful princess with golden hair." Ino grinned. "They were alone in the world, and there was no one else. Then, one day, a Demon came."

"What did it look like?"

"Uh… It was pale and small, with green eyes. It looked harmless at first. The prince and the princess did not know it was evil when they first saw it, because it looked weak and defenseless." He continued,"One day, when the prince and princess were playing, they came too close to the Demon's cave. The princess got hurt. She got hurt really bad."

"That's stupid." Ino scowls.

"What?" Taken aback, he says, "You can't just say that. It was a powerful Demon."

"Well," she huffs, "The prince should've rescued the princess. That's what princes are supposed to do! "

He thinks it over. "Yes," he agrees, "The princess got hurt because the prince wasn't strong enough to defend her the first time. So the prince became stronger so he could protect her from the Demon. And when he was strong enough, he defeated the demon so that no one would ever get hurt again. And then the prince and the princess lived happily ever after."

Ino nods. "That makes more sense." Pushing herself off the chair, she waves at him on her way to the door. "I gotta go now, thanks for the story!" And then he is alone.

"Yes, that does make more sense, doesn't it," he muses, looking at his dolls.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: **

In the six-year-old mind of one Yamanaka Ino, there was only one boy who could qualify as a prince. That boy, of course, was the one and only Uchiha Sasuke. There was something quietly regal in his bearing, a certain beauty in the sharpness of his features that just screamed of royalty.

And of course she herself was a princess. She was blonde, she was pretty, and Daddy called her a princess all the time. Daddy was never wrong, no matter whether it was about if someone was lying, if someone was a bad guy, or what time she should go to bed. At the tender age of six, Ino was already acquainted with the cold, hard fact that even if she didn't agree with her father, that didn't mean he was wrong. It was one of those often-unfortunate facts of life, but at least it was a constant she could rely on. And there were definite perks to having an omniscient father—she knew for sure she was a princess, because Daddy said so.

Sasuke was also trying very hard to be strong. He had said so himself, while standing on top of the monkey bars.

"What are you doing?" she had asked, "That's not how you play on the monkey bars. You're supposed to hold onto the bars, not stand on top of them!"

He had smirked at her in a way that made her six-year-old mind flicker with annoyance. It wasn't like he was bigger than her or cooler than her. He shouldn't look so superior when all he was doing was doing it wrong.

"I'm training, not playing. I'm going to be a great and powerful ninja, like Nii-san! So I have to practice here before I can walk on tree branches." He stepped gingerly from bar to bar, face twisting in concentration. "Playing is for weak babies," he declared, shooting her a smug look after he had sufficiently recovered his balance.

"O-oh," Ino's eyes widened. That changed things. She scrambled to pull herself up on top of the monkeybars, too, and shot him a smug smile of her own. "Well then, I'm training too. I'm going to be the best kunoichi ever." This way, they were equal now, and he'd have to stop acting like he was so much better than her. Besides, she figured, she should get on this whole training business just in case if her prince couldn't actually protect her well enough. Just in case. You could never be really sure, after all, and it's better to be safe than sorry.

By the end of the afternoon, Ino was convinced that Sasuke was the best candidate to fill the role of her prince. He was the strongest, the smartest and the coolest. He also was from a Noble Clan, which as far as Ino was concerned, meant that his family had fancy dinner parties and thought good manners were important, both of which seemed like a mandatory requirement for royal families.

Shikamaru certainly didn't fit the bill. He was so lazy—Ino was pretty sure that if a dragon came by to threaten her, Shikamaru wouldn't help at all. She'd be left to handle it on her own, while he sat in the corner doing nothing.

Chouji wouldn't make a good prince either. All he did was eat! And no one ever wanted to be on his team for games, so Ino figured he wasn't very athletic, which meant he wouldn't be good at protecting her either.

Ino was friends with Shikamaru and Chouji (mostly because their families spent a lot of time together and there weren't any other girls to play with when that happened), but they just weren't prince material.

And so began the first faint stirrings of Ino's crush on Uchiha Sasuke.

~o~x~o~

When walking home from the playground-cum-training grounds that evening, Ino announced to her father that she wanted to be the best kunoichi ever. He smiled indulgently at her and felt a glow of pride. His little girl was following in her daddy's footsteps!

Of course, mindreaders aren't actually omniscient when not actively reading minds, so he had no clue that Ino's decision was born of a desire to proactively protect herself from potential danger in case if Prince Charming turned out to be a pansy.

In any case, he enthusiastically supported his little princess in her career choice and signed her up for the Academy the next morning, boasting to Shikaku and Chouza about how his darling was actually interested in becoming a ninja.

In the first days of Academy, Ino was delighted to discover a few important things. One, Uchiha Sasuke was in her class, so she could keep tabs on whether he would really make a capable prince. Two, he was at the top of the class, which meant she had made a good choice. Three, there were girls in her class! Not as many as the boys, but there were enough girls that they could play and talk together and do girl things. After having to work so hard for years to make Shikamaru and Chouji play dolls or dress up or house or all sorts of other games, Ino finally had friends who wanted to play these games too! And the girls in her class were far more talkative than Shikamaru and Chouji, which meant she could have real conversations with kids her age. It was, as Ami-chan put it, totally awesome-blossom.

~o~x~o~

In other parts of the world, however, things were not totally awesome-blossom. More specifically, Temari's room was quickly becoming Kankuro's second room, and Temari was not happy about it.

"Euughh! Go sleep in your own room. Go. Now." Temari planted her feet firmly at the doorway to her room and glared as ferociously as she could. The fearsome factor was quickly melting, but she was a full-fledged genin, and she would hold her ground.

"Please?" Kankuro asked, piteously, blanket trailing on the ground as he looked up at her. "I barely have enough space to walk in my room right now, I can't sleep there. I'll try to use my own room tomorrow, promise."

"You're such a baby, you know that?" Temari scowled as Kankuro's puppy eyes morphed into a full-fledged smirk. He straightened up until he was almost her height (almost, but not quite. He was still younger than her, even if only by a year). She continued to glare half-heartedly at him as he squeezed past her into the room, plopping down on the ground by the foot of her bed like an overgrown dog. Kankuro stuck his tongue out at her, and she rolled her eyes. It wasn't until the lights were out and she was safe in her own bed that she heard him call out, hesitantly.

"Temari?"

"What?"

"I won't let it happen again. I'll protect you, I promise."

"Go to sleep, stupid. I'm a genin, I can take care of myself."

"I promise, Tems. I promise."

In the soft darkness of the bedroom, Kankuro heard his sister shift. He quickly covered his head to avoid getting hit by an oncoming projectile, only to be hit in the chest with something soft. A stuffed rabbit. He stared curiously in the direction of his sister, even if he couldn't quite see her.

"You forgot to bring a pillow, so you can use Momo. "

"Aa." Kankuro grinned into the darkness, and across the dark, Temari smiled back.


End file.
